“You can’t come upstairs if there’s nothing important.”

I smiled bitterly. I thought he had changed his mind, but he still only cared about Yulia not being mistreated.

It broke my heart because everyone was sorting out Yulia’s daily necessities while I had to move my things to the basement. I finished only late at night after busying myself with it the whole day.

I lay in a folded bed and watched the darkness around me. The basement was wet and cold. There was even an intermittent sound of mice hitting the wall.

I recalled when Sean held my hand and led me to my bedroom ten years ago.

“This is the princess room I purposely designed for you, Zella. As long as I’m alive, you’ll always stay here. No one can drive you away.”

I started crying. After my parents passed away, the families who had adopted me kept abandoning me. They shunned me because they assumed that I was a useless girl.

Only Sean brought me home and regarded me as his dearest girl.

I fished out a few sheets of paper from underneath my pillow. The top sheet was my two-week pregnancy report, which said the baby was healthy. I touched the blob of darkness on the picture of prenatal ultrasound.

The second paper was a medical record. I was suffering from stomach cancer and my prognosis was nine months at best.

I smiled sincerely. At least, I could hold on until I gave birth to my baby. My child would be able to enjoy the world for me.

I curled up and held my legs, but I could not fall asleep.

A cup of hot water was splashed on me the next morning. It woke me right up.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted out as my skin started burning.

Yulia looked at me innocently. Before she could speak up, a familiar voice came from the stairs. “Zella, stop yelling!”

Sean strode over and carefully inspected Yulia to see if she was hurt. He refused to look at me. Yulia lowered her head and looked up at him pitifully.

“I didn’t mean it, Sean. I heard from the maid that Zella was still asleep and was afraid that she would starve herself! Plus, it’s freezing. I wanted to get her a cup of hot water, but I didn’t expect the basement to be this dark.”

Sean touched her head. “I know. But you don’t have to serve her. She can do it herself.” Then, he glared at me.

“I’m sorry, Zella.” Yulia looked at me apologetically.

Sean noticed the thin blanket on the bed and knitted his brows. “Stop pretending! Why did you use such a thin blanket in such a cold place?”

I looked down as bitterness overwhelmed me. The maids were snobbish and would not give me anything better. When I asked for a comforter, they told me that Yulia needed it for her dog. I could not have it.

I was too weak to explain it, which made Sean want to say something, but Yulia distracted him.

“Sean, it’s dark here. Look at my hand. Is it burned?” she asked while crying pretentiously. She raised her hand in front of Sean, which he carefully picked up.

“It must’ve gotten burned. I’ll get the family doctor.” Then, he hurriedly left.

As soon as he was gone, Yulia stopped pretending. She sat down on the bed and smiled provocatively at me. She was showing off.

“Oh, my! My hand is just slightly burned. It’s nothing compared to the burn on your face.”

Yulia searched the bed until she found the sheets of paper.

Yulia suspiciously went through the reports.

“You’re pregnant?” Bewilderment hit her as she looked at me. After that, she checked out the second report.

“Oh, it looks like you’re dying.” She pretended to be kind by folding it and placing it carefully where she had found it.

“Behave yourself, Zella. Do you get me?” Yulia threatened me. She gently touched my face. “I wonder if your face will be ruined.”

“She’s an undertaker. It’s not hard to put on nice makeup.” Sean was back.

“But she does it for the dead people!” Yulia acted naive and innocent.

Sean remained quiet but gave me a profound look. After that, he left with Yulia.

I understood that look. He was warning me not to dream of things that did not belong to me. I would be long dead without him.

The burn on my face and the coldness in my heart tortured me. I had not eaten for two consecutive days. I finally failed to hold on in the afternoon.

I was gripped by a serious stomach ache, but my pills were in the living room. Hence, I gnashed my teeth and went up there.

My hands were shaking as I tried to unscrew the bottle of pills. I was too weak, and the bottle escaped from my grasp. It rolled forward. My back was already drenched with sweat, so I went down on my knees. I could not get to my feet and was forced to crawl toward the bottle.

Before I could grab the bottle, Yulia, who was late in her pregnancy, appeared.

She smirked and wickedly kicked the bottle away. Consequently, it rolled under the cabinet.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see it.”

I glared at her. The excruciating pain made me clutch my belly to try to ease the pain.

“Stop glaring at me. Did I mistreat you, Zella?”

Disgusted, I weakly said, “Go away!”

She snorted. “Zella, I’m sure you need the pills to live. Do you want to know why you got sick?” She looked down at me condescendingly.

I glared at her in exhaustion.

She laughed arrogantly. Since Sean was not home, she probably did not care about exposing her true self. Or, she had already bribed the maids.

“You always woke up in Sean’s bed. Do you really think it was because you walked to him in your sleep?”

Sleepwalking.

For a long period, I always woke up in Sean’s bed. I was worried that people might spread rumors about it since he was my nominal uncle, even if he was only eight years older than me.

Yulia came to me at that time. She was a psychologist and claimed that I had been suffering from severe sleepwalking, but she could help keep this issue a secret for the sake of Sean’s reputation. However, the premise was that I had to undergo treatment and take pills daily.

I did not contemplate it much because I wanted to keep that issue hidden.

Doubt gripped me.

“It’s true that you’re the only one who can help Sean with his sleep disorder, but I can’t live without him since I love him so much. And you’re naive. You panicked after sleeping in the same bed with your uncle and believed everything I told you. Now that you’re about to die, I shall tell you the truth.”

She looked at me disdainfully as if she could easily kill me. “The so-called treatment I gave you was merely hypnosis, while the pills you took were really for sleepwalking. Only that their side effect is that you’ll get stomach cancer if you take them long term.”

Blood drained from my face after listening to her.

Her words explained everything. Deep hatred overcame me, and I grabbed her ankle and stabbed my fingernails into her flesh. But I found it hard to say anything. All I could do was moan in pain.

It was a surprise to Yulia that I still had some energy left, and she tried to kick me away.

“Are you out of your mind? Let go of me!”

It was unknown to me where I found the strength, but I held onto her.

She struggled briefly before cracking a bizarre smile. Then, she fell backward, hitting her waist against the sofa leg.

I heard Sean scream as I weakly lay on the floor, unable to focus on anything. My vision was blurring. I was in too much pain to feel anything.

Enlightenment hit me.

Sean anxiously picked Yulia up. He was frightened by the blood oozing out from her clothes. Shakily, he touched her face.

“Yulia! Yulia!”

Unexpectedly, Yulia tried to beg for mercy for me before she closed her eyes. “Sean, don’t blame Zella.”

After picking Yulia up, Sean glared at me.

“Just you wait, Zella. Drag her to the door and make her get down on her knees. She can’t get up nor get any food until Yulia wakes up!”

He had to be furious to say such a thing. He did not go easy on me despite knowing I was sick. No, that was wrong. He had no idea that I was sick or pregnant with his baby, and it was unlikely that he would ever find out about it.

A few burly maids dumped me at the door. The weather was bad, and I got drenched in no time. Then, the rain turned heavy.

I fainted while clutching my belly. I had long lost hope that Sean would save me. I just wished that my child would survive.

When I regained consciousness, I heard some vague conversations.

“What should we do? Mr. Graham has made all the doctors in Jade City serve Miss Little.”

“Yeah, what should we do about Miss Cooper? She’s so miserable!”

“By the way, Miss Little went for a checkup before going abroad. She couldn’t get with child. I wonder how she got pregnant.”

“Hey, watch your tongue!”

“I heard it from a relative who’s a nurse at that hospital. Miss Little played around before becoming an adult, which ruined her body.”

“Okay, stop. Do you want to lose your job?”

I found Sean heartless and cruel. If I were not strong, I would have never overheard how he had trifled with my life. Maybe it would have been better to have died. I could have left with good memories, at least.

In the end, someone found a doctor for me.

Three days passed before I woke up again to the pungent smell of the disinfectant in the hospital. I abruptly opened my eyes and found it hard to move my body.

“My baby!”

“Miss Cooper, you’re very weak because of the miscarriage. Don’t move.”

I lost my baby. My eyes widened from the realization, and I looked down. I could not stop my body from shaking as I tried my best to keep calm. However, my breathing became more rapid and difficult. I failed to keep my baby.

“Miss Cooper, I have to remind you about something since I’m your attending doctor. Your body is ruined since the cancer cells in your belly are spreading and destroying everything.”